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Matters of the heart
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A `heart-healthy' diet is important for kids
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Adults frequently ignore dietary guidelines while feeding children. Parents believe growing children need all the food they can eat.Children usually get as many helpings of parathas, eggs, meat, pooris, snacks and other fat-rich foods as they want, and experts worry that this indulgence makes cardiovascular disease likelier in adult life.
Is dietary restriction wise for kids? Well, it is a fact that cardiovascular disease starts in childhood. Studies of the early stages of atherosclerosis in children and young adults consistently show the presence of arterial deposits of fats and early plaques at young ages. Studies on young adults and children who died in accidents reveal that the risk factor most closely associated with such fat deposits and plaques was the LDL serum cholesterol.
Start young
This is one reason why experts believe starting a "heart-healthy" diet in childhood reduces the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Heart-healthy diets for adults restrict fat to less than 30 per cent of total calories, saturated fat to less than 10 per cent of total calories and cholesterol to less than 300 mg per day. The major issue with the diet is whether it will support the development needs of childhood. The diet is not for children less than two years old because their growth and development requires a milk-based diet naturally high in saturated fat and cholesterol. But studies in children older than two years show that the diet is safe as well as health-promoting. Children on the diet grow normally, and they do not differ from kids on a "normal diet" in terms of weight, height, micronutrients or even mental health. The only difference is a small but significant reduction of LDL cholesterol in the children on a heart-healthy diet.
Parents should not go overboard and over-restrict dietary fat, an essential nutrient for growth and development. Child nutrition experts recommend a total fat intake of no less than 20 per cent in children older than two years. Plus, there should be no deficiencies of fat-associated nutritional factors, such as vitamins A, D, and E and long-chain polyunsaturated essential fatty acids. Ultimately, limiting dietary fat and cholesterol at home should be a family concern that encompasses children, and not just something parents do for their own health.
RAJIV. M
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